Real Deal REInvestor Network

When I tell people starting out in the real estate investing arena to start building their “book of business” by reverse marketing people who are potential buyers and investors by databasing their contact information from the advertising those buyers and investors put out there marketing their own businesses from bandit signs on the side of the road, yellowpages, newspaper “I buy houses” ads, real estate investor clubs, landlord associations, real estate internet forums and more -- I sometimes get a blank stare.

When I then calling those buyers and investors to open the relationship, I often hear an almost audible “gulp” in the voice of the person asking me for advice.

I don’t need to be a therapist for that to tell me that that person is a little uncomfortable with calling “strangers” on the phone and giving them a value proposition to do business with you-- even when those very same “strangers” are advertising and saying in essence “Call me! Contact me!”. Have you ever felt that way? Why is that?

 If you have questions, are having trouble, or are just plain scared (that's ok), you’ve just got to get over it if you are looking to make your mark in business. The phone is an investor's friend and you will have to get over the fear of dialing for dollars.

Look at my own personal business, it’s grown to the place where calling first is no longer time effective. But it’s how my business partners and I really got our start.

Until our investor prospect database was well over 1500 I’d say every single one of them got calls from me and one other principal as well multiple times to feel them out, ask questions, create value and separate out the players from the wanna be's, and find the cash investors and the movers and shakers with contacts. We’d also  call to get criteria from the landlord/rehab buyers that are your bread and butter for doing wholesaling as we were.

Today, I could call 10 investors every day for 10 years and not reach all of the investors in our database. Think about that and do the math.

So we do things a bit differently at a higher level just due to bandwidth limitations and the lead generation flow I've put in place for our companies over the years.

But many of you do NOT have an investor database and are just beginning to grow it, right?

Would it help if someone simply GAVE you a small database of investors, a section of hundreds of investor prospects, who were all local to you within a 100 mile radius according to their city, zip code or area code?

People you'll be able to call in YOUR area, build a relationship and pursue doing business? Who may become rehab or landlord buyers for your fix and flip deals? Or wholesalers you JV with to market their deals? Or private lenders/investors who place capital with you? Or agents who help you re-sell your rehabbed homes? Or loan officers who can get your retail buyers pre-qualified or members of your local power team ETC ETC?

My partners and I have done just that for dozens of entrepreneurs-in-training who interned with our company...as a jump-start for our MMM Challenge apprentices.

Because it can be useful to call someone from a warm referral (they know who we are), and knowing that they're local to you opens a world of opportunities doesn't it?

And that tactic won’t just help you if you come intern with our company. Anyone can do that with a little gumption and asking around.; If you’re just starting out, there’s a good chance you can add value to other investors locally by helping them work their database of investors, offering their deals and opportunities to their people with you doing the relationship marketing as a joint venture. Make the calls to their people, offer some properties for sale, and ask questions so you can stay in touch afterwards.

It’s just like I tell interns who work with our company. Contacts are nothing. Connections are everything. Connections can be channeled to create cash (in this or any business). The phone is the greatest tool for turning one to another in my experience.

It can be used to set up a meeting, invite for coffee, schedule a dinner, ask for an in-person presentation, or invite to an event. It can be used to “ping” (briefly contact to stay in touch and top of mind), ask probing questions to find out what others are doing and what their challenges are, to uncover ways to add value to others-- and then to actually follow through on that value add—and to see what investors are looking for that you can sell them.

It's all right there for us. But if you’re looking at a spreadsheet of contacts, and you’re not yet sure how to turn them into connections that create cash, then my advice is simple: grab your friend the phone and start dialing.

And if you don’t yet have a database “book of business” for your real estate efforts, it’s time to get one. I just gave you two options to build your own through reverse marketing databasing or aligning yourself with a company through joint venture who’d only be too happy to have you make them money offering their opportunities and properties to their investor database with you doing all the work to work their contacts and you splitting profits when those connections create cash on transactions.